Home Edutainment Collecti…he Best of ImagiSoft MVP/TheBestOfImagisoftMVP-Vol1-AztechMediaCorp.iso/read-eng.txt

Text File | 1995-06-22 | 11KB | 200 lines

Wari, Chinese Checkers, Redhook's Revenge, Movie To Go!, The Color Wizard
and the ImagiSOFT Catalog are Copyright 1993, 1994 ImagiSOFT, Inc.

All other application titles on this CD-ROM disc are
Copyright 1993, 1994 MVP Software Inc.

This CD-ROM disc compilation and certain other items are
Copyright, 1994, 1995 Aztech New Media Corp.

Thank you for purchasing Aztech's Home Edutainment Collection, Series II.
This compilation represents some of the very best shareware applications
games currently available from ImagiSOFT and MVP Software. This collection
features four DOS-based CD's (volume's 1-4) and three Windows-based
(3.1 or later, volumes 5-7) CD's.

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To use this disc, log on to your CD-ROM drive (eg. D:) and type GO.
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Many of the applications on this CD-ROM run directly from the CD-ROM,
although you may not be able to save games or save reconfigure options
(you can't change the contents of a CD-ROM). Some games may need to be
placed on your hard drive because the program needs to determine the
configuration of your PC as it installs itself.

Some games want to write a configuration file or a high score file to disk.
Since it is not possible to write information to a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read
Only Memory) any changes you make to the a game's configuration will have
to be done each time you play the game. To overcome this, you will have to
copy the game to your hard disk or to a floppy.

ImagiSOFT and MVP produce versions of its applications as shareware.
You ARE encouraged to distribute the SHAREWARE version of each application
to your friends, etc.. The shareware versions of all the applications are
also provided on this disc.

NeoSoft Corp. (Bend, Oregon) graciously consented to permit Aztech to use
their Registered NeoBook program. It is an elegant, simple and complete
authoring system. We have set up all the programs in one menu to make your
selections effortless.

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A NOTE ABOUT SHAREWARE
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It is important to note that the bundled price of this CD-ROM covers only
the medium, research, assembly, production, packaging, and distribution
costs. The actual intellectual properties (that is, the shareware programs)
require separate payment to the author(s) if you are going to use them.
These programs are "shareware." They are not free unless specifically
identified as such.

Many of the games offer the first episode or level for free with the hope
that you will enjoy them enough to want to buy the additional episodes.
This is one of the best methods of shareware. Try the first level - if
you like it buy the rest.

Other games give you the full functionality and the author expects that
if you like and use their product that you will forward a recommended
payment to them. Usually there are additional incentives for "registering."

For more information on Directories and Disks, please refer to your
MS-DOS Manual or Windows Operating Guide.

All of the applications have been reviewed. They all work. They are
all decompressed and each application resides in its own directory.
You do not need to know the "executable" file. You do not need to
know how to use various decompression programs.

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MOST COMMON SHAREWARE PROBLEMS
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Unfortunately, the MS-DOS world of PC's has its own share of software and
hardware problems because of its more than 15-year legacy of trying to
maintain compatibility with older versions of software and the all-important
customer data. This has led to numerous inconsistencies and patch fixes for
making MS-DOS and PC hardware do things they were never designed to do.

The shareware Aztech selected for this compilation is amongst the best in
the world and some of these games approach or even exceed the quality of
some commercial game products. Applications will freeze, hang-up, lock out,
cause the screen to go screwy, terminate abnormally and do all the most
horrific things that we all dislike about PC's and none of it is specific or
even necessarily caused by the application currently running. The most
common problems you may run into are:

Some games on this disc were written without consideration for the
continuing improvements in CPU performance. If the game runs too fast
then you might consider pressing the "Turbo" or similarly-labelled
button on your machine's front panel. It should change the display
from the usual 33, 66 or 100 MHz to something like 8 or 12 MHz.
Read the CD label which states, TO RUN: Log on to CD-ROM drive and
type GO. Go launches a menu which allows you to run the majority of
the games directly from the CD.

You did not read the HELP file (which you ARE now reading). This short
file has some useful information about how to use the disc and how to
exit from games that don't have an obvious exit.

Not enough conventional memory usually raises the ire of many of us
with more than 2 MB of RAM. We know we have enough memory to play
most any game. You may have lots of RAM and still be getting this kind
of symptom or error message because the application may require more of
the first 640 KB of RAM in your computer than is actually available.
Read about loading drivers and applications in high memory and how to
disable Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs.

The application is asking for information about your PC that any
"normal" person wouldn't know but is "guessing" at, such as:

The demonic IRQ (Interrupt ReQuest) number, most often asked by
applications when determining the SoundBlaster sound card, usually
defaults to "7."  However, the assumption is that sound cards would
never be used at the same time someone is printing something. IRQ 7 is
also the number for the parallel port. Only one device may use an IRQ
at a time so if the user is playing music on the sound card and wants
to print something or another device is also using IRQ 7, an "IRQ
conflict" arises and the system will instantly hang, usually leaving
the last note played also hanging on your eardrum as an irritating
reminder of the conflict. Changing an IRQ is not something a novice
should do. However, the only real alternatives are to go through all
the options of a particular game to find one that works or getting an
experienced person to identify the conflict and change the IRQ setting
on one or more of the hardware cards.

If the IRQ number is asked for, then another number is also usually
asked for. This is the port address, which is the unique address of
the device, much like the house number on a street is unique to the
human device(s) residing in it. This number usually defaults to 220
for the SoundBlaster and this one has to be handled the same as the IRQ.

The villainous video card is amongst the most common and most
misunderstood creatures of the PC. EGA was wonderful because it was a
standard. However, the world cannot be viewed through 16-color glasses
and so S/VGA was conspired as someone's master plan to reduce tech
support people all over the world to blithering idiots. Again, the
assumption is that you will know which particular VGA or S/VGA card you
have in your PC. While the PC industry has been getting smarter about
automatic detection of these cards, it still remains that most
applications in the PC world do not support every manufacturer's
version of S/VGA. To compound problems, the VESA standard is not
strictly adhered to by even the very largest video card manufacturers.
You may have a manual for the card. If not, many video cards will
identify themselves, typically on one of the very first lines to be